A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



hands he gave it to Ilbert his sheriff for his term of 

 office, and he held the two manors as one. 117 Each 

 of these two manors rendered the service of z ' averse ' 

 and t ' inwardi.' "* At the end of this time Ilbert 

 refused to find the customary 'avera' due from the 

 manor, and it was forcibly taken from him by Peter 

 de Valoines, his successor, and Ralph Taillebois, who 

 laid it to the king's manor of Hitchin.'" 



Dinsley was apparently included in the grant of the 

 manor of Hitchin made to Guy or Bernard de Baliol 

 (see above), for in the reign of Stephen Bernard de 

 Baliol granted 15 librates of land at ' Wedelee ' (a 

 name used elsewhere for Dinsley), a member of his 

 manor of Hitchin, to the Master and Brothers of the 

 Knights Templar;. 120 Other grants of land were made 

 to this order, and together formed the manor of 

 TEMPLE DINSLEK A grant of free warren there 

 1253.'" They also claimed 

 -size of bread and ale and 

 309 Ralph de Monchenscy 

 ere appointed to report on 

 1 preparatory to the suppres- 

 ch took place shortly aftcr- 



was made to them in 

 view of frankpledge, a 

 gallows there. 1 " In 1 

 and John de Kyrcton v 

 the state of the manor 1 

 sion of the order, wh 



w 



life interest."* Lee died in 1588, and was succeeded 



by his son and heir Thomas,"' from whom the manor 



descended to his eldest surviving son Edwin, 1 " who wai 



created a baronet in 1661. '" 



He diedin 1672. His son Sir 



Edwin Sadlcir sold the manor 



in 1 712 to Benedict Ithcll of 



Chelsea.'" His son Benedict 



died without issue in 1758, 



when the property passed to 



his sisters Elizabeth and 



Martha. The former died in 



1766 and Martha one year 



later. Neither left any chil- 

 dren, and Martha bequeathed 



the estate of Temple Dinsley 



to her steward, Thomas Har- 

 wood, who at his death in 



1786 left it to a nephew, Joseph Darton.'" It is 

 now the property of Mr. H. G. Fenwick. 



The manor of MA1DECROFT (Medcroft, xiii 

 cent. ; Maidccroft, xiv cent.) or DINSLET FUR- 

 NIVAL was another part of the manor of Dinsley 

 which is said in the 13th 

 century to have been granted 

 by William Rufus to Richard 

 de Lovecert. In 1268 it was 

 in the tenure of Thomas de 

 Furnival, who conveyed to 

 his younger brother Gerard 



ward).'" With the other lands of the Templar; it 

 passed to the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of 

 Jerusalem, and in 1 3 30 the prior of that order demised 

 it to William Langford for life." 5 The priors held 

 the manor of the lords of the manors of Hitchin, 

 Dinsley Furnival and King's Wnlden by finding two 

 chaplains annually to celebrate divine service in the 

 chapel of the manor for the souls of the former lords 

 of those manors who had been the feoffors of the 

 Templars. 11 ' At the suppression of the Hospitallers 

 the manor of Temple Dinsley came to the Crown 

 and was granted to Sir Ralph Sadleir in March 

 1542.'" He settled the manor on his son Edward 

 Sadleir and Edward's wife Anne.'" Sir Ralph died 

 in 1 587, when it descended to Lee son of Edward," 8 

 the latter having died in 1584. Anne, widow 'of t 

 Edward, who married Ralph Norwich, retained a j 



»£■"• ""•■""»" F.H»,.„„., !M , 



a daughter 



Gerard Furnival's daughter, then t 

 of Gerard de Furnival, wife of John de Useflet 

 13 1 5-16 Gerard son of William de Eylesford' 

 recovered the manor against John son of William 

 Hurst.' Soon after this the manor came into the 

 hands of the overlord, Robert Kendale, who in 

 March 1317-18 received a grant of free warren in 

 his demesne lands there, 5 and it descended with the 

 manor of Hitchin (q.v.) until the death of Edward 

 Kendale the younger in 1 3 7 5 . s It then passed to 

 his sister Beatrice, wife of Robert Turk, as ap- 

 parently it was not held like Hitchin in tail-male. 

 Beatrice and her husband conveyed the manor in 

 the following year to Sir William Croyser, kt., and 

 Elizabeth his daughter, 7 apparently in confirmation 

 of an earlier grant made by Edward Kendale in 

 1372. A life interest in the manor was retained by 



!1 C,;l. a, : - 

 " Assize R. 



3*5- 



'6-57, P- < 



-. II, pt. i, m. 4 

 ""Orig. Min,. Accts. He: 

 S65. 



***Ce!.Pur. 1527-30, p. 531. 

 ■"Dugdale, Mm, vii, 819. 



'* L. and F. Hen. Fill, n i 



US)- 



Wfat. 1 J Elii.pt. ii, m. 19 



